Toshiba SD350 - Any info?

[squibbly]

Anybody heard anything about the new Toshiba SD350?

Seems to be about to be available at sub-£80, with HDMI and upscaling to 720p, 1080i. I'm just wondering what scaler they're using in there.

 

[ahstay]

zoran 7 chipset, nt foraudja
works well through

 

[Ekko Star]

I picked this player up today. For £79.99 I thought what the hell, was intrigued as to how good it would be compared to my 868.

It's a very small diminuitive machine, I was surprised ! Obviously not in premium quality build league but very good for price. Tweaks and features are fairly limited, but I would say you don't need them on this player, you can quite easily toggle scaling modes.

Having just hooked it up straight out the box via HDMI to my plasma the picture is HOT ! Mighty impressive for £79.99 and you can't go wrong with this machine at that price. It's going to be a very popular player.

 

[Ekko Star]

I think I may have spoken too early After an evenings use I have noticed the player has occasionally jumped and stuck on clean or new dvd's. On one occasion it even crashed.

Hooked up to plasma and whilst a good picture it doesn't reach the heights of 3-Dimensionality via the HDMI which some other players can. Hooking it up to my PJ and the picture was much more dissapointing, no matter what I tried.

At the end of the day for the price it'll do the business but as always there's no substitute for proper quality.

 

[TimF]

Just got mine from unbeatable.com - had to wait for stock but pleased I did.

Excellent prog scan picture on component and plays just about any disk I throw at it including DVD MP3 disks.

Bargain at £75.

Cheers

Tim

 

[tulloch2003]

Is it better than your Philips 963SA then.

Regards Tulloch

 

[zoro]

Does it do pal to ntsc?

 

[TimF]

Better than 963SA as this has broken again - now out of warranty and can't be bothered to get it repaired. To be honest although when working the Philips machine was excellent it has been nothing but a problem.

Not sure about the Pal to NTSC conversion not covered in manual - not even sure why this is important?

I will say that the picture on prog scan pic on the PJ is the best I have had in my setup- somehow crisper than the the Philips and the colours more vibrant. Easy to set up and handset hack to multiregion.

Only one design fault - although you can switch off/dim the display (and garish blue led lit disk tray) when the machine goes to standby and then you turn it back on the display comes back on.

I haven't got a hdmi lead to try this connection to PJ - all the cabling in my set up is under floorboards so unless I can find away to convert HDMI to use the redundant SVGA cabling I am stuck for now.

Cheers

Tim

 

[Ekko Star]

I didn't bother trying with component, bought it specifically for the HDMI and upscaling. Picture was seriously dissapointing on PJ though.

Just to clarify that the player does have a simple brightness and edge enhancement setting. However via HDMI there was an overall underlying gamma level that was irritating. Via the PJ it was clearly evident and affected the blacks. On plasma it was fine and liveable. If you can get into the finer adjustments on the player I think you could get a very good picture out of it but alas they have skimped on the tweakable features on this machine.

Sent it back for now, the 868 is firmly the better HDMI buy, no question.

Whilst a bit disappointed with the 350, it was up against an 868AVi, SD9500 & SD900. So although disappointed on how the HDMI fared against top quality, which I appreciate maybe an unfair comparison, for £80 it is a good machine nevertheless. Whilst clear and sharp, the HDMI picture didn't reach the magical 3-Dimensionality that others can. Although if you want tweakability I reckon the Panny S97 or the Oppo's maybe better machines to go for if you can stretch your budget a bit.

Anyway for £80 it's worth trying to see if it floats your boat.

 

[andrewf]

does this player upscale through the component?

 

[TimF]

Nope - just through hdmi

Cheers

Tim

 

[Ekko Star]

Only via HDMI. It can easily toggle it *whilst* playing, which is a benefit and a big plus as you can see comparison immediately.

576P was still the best picture out of it though for me both via PJ or Plasma, next best was 1080i.

 

[Angelis]

Got it today and connected it to my Panasonic pv500 via HDMI.

Very dissapointed. Lots of crackling sound and white specks on the screen at the two higher resolutions.

Called Toshiba tech support and the guy did'nt know anything about the DVD. Told me to return it to the shop.

 

[Ekko Star]

Toshiba do have one of the better Customer Care lines. They should have given you a reference or a swap out option. I got my number and returned my machine.

My machine the laser assemby was slightly off. I opted for a straight refund.

 

[Hooch100]

sorry to jump in but is the 350 Multi-region ?

 

[lewmac]

sorry to jump in but is the 350 Multi-region ?

Depends where you get it from I got mine from

http://www.leconcepts.com/dvd_home.htm

I heard that it has the same hack as the 340

 

[TimF]

Multi region through remote:

1 Open Tray
2 Key "2403960"
3 key "enter" repeatedly to go to region "9"
4 close tray


Cheers

 

[Caimbeul]

Great! I have just swapped my Sammy HD850 for this as the Sammy was giving me issues with HDMI - sounds like this wont be too hot either...is the S97 any good and where get I get it at retail? (sorry for that las bit being o abit off htread but if anyone knows??)

 

[peahead]

comet

 

[peahead]

Play.com are now selling it for £79
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=ELEC&title=705835&p=262&g=342&pa=genbrw

 

[lewmac]

Anyone help, using vivanco hdmi lead on 350 and hitachi 32ld7200 I find that I have a better quality picture on component rather than hdmi, also when I eject dvd on the hdmi input I get a loud crackling sound, does not happen on other inputs. If I touch the hdmi lead I loose picture is there a problem with the lead or set, grateful for any reply.

 

[Ricky27]

Got my 350 last thursday, running through 10m HDMI to sanyo Z3, first impressions were good but once i spent hours tweaking my PJ the results are great, a real leap in picture quality over component, well worth the hours spent as the picture has bags more detail, colours more vibrant and pic is more vivid thanks to more contrast and total lack of grain compared to component.
Found 1080i to be the best for my Z3.

 

[Caimbeul]

comet

What, Comet for the S97??

Sent my 350 back due to lack of DVD+R support. Image quality was very good though, even via RGB Scart.

 

[dsbaker]

Hi ricky27, just wondering what tweaks you've made? I've got this player running via HDMI to a Panny PV500 plasma - great quality picture but can't really tell the difference from component if I'm honest...

once i spent hours tweaking my PJ the results are great, a real leap in picture quality over component

 

[bonc]

right,

have changed my mind again, have ditched the Sony idea!

it has 12bit/54mhz video DACs, which I believe is no better guarantee of picture quality than a 10 bit/108mhz player!

So,

Am now looking at the 350, it has an HDMI slot which future proofs it for a while and plays Divx/Mpeg4

does anyone know what video DACS it uses?

Can you purchase it in any retail outlets?

Are you sure you cant turn the blue light off (and it stays off even when you switch off) as the manual states you can??!!!

Thanks

p.s what kind of dvd+r's will it not play (cheapo ones)

whats itslayer change like!